Two arrested in Lawrence murder investigation

Two people were arrested last night in connection with the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, the teenager stabbed as he waited for a bus in Eltham, south London, seven years ago.

Sources with knowledge of the police investigation said the development in the long-running saga was "significant".

The arrests came on the same night that Stephen's parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence, and the head of the Metropolitan police's racial and violent crimes task force, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve, in making an appeal for fresh information on their son's murder on the BBC's Crimewatch programme.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "Two men were arrested this evening in connection with the murder. They are currently in custody in a south London police station."

The arrest of new suspects did not come as a result of the television appeal but was announced by Mr Grieve in Crimewatch Update.

Both of those arrested were white males in their 20s. One was arrested in Scotland, the other in south-east London. They will be questioned later today and are believed to be known to the five prime suspects in the murder.

In another significant development, it is believed that other suspects previously investigated in connection with the murder were arrested on suspicion of helping illegal immigrants into the country.

Kent police said: "We can confirm that five men were arrested yesterday morning in connection with an investigation by Kent special branch and immigration officials into the facilitation of illegal immigrants." Mr Grieve also said that new forensic techniques had given fresh impetus to the inquiry - further tests will also be carried out on a knife and a coat found close to the murder scene - and that police were "very close" to iden tifying a potentially vital witness who was at the scene.

A source said last night: "Tonight is the most optimistic police have been for three years over catching the killers."